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Comment by dvdt | Hacker News Reader

My guess is that self-swabbing is allowed in the Seattle SCAN study because it is a research study. The SCAN study is super fascinating because it would be crazy unusual under normal times for a research study to return results back to patients; I'm very happy they are able to do that, and it speaks to the severity of this pandemic.

The FDA has recently made clear that no at-home self-collection tests are allowed (for now): https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/emergency-situations-med...

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> The SCAN study is super fascinating because it would be crazy unusual under normal times for a research study to return results back to patients; I'm very happy they are able to do that, and it speaks to the severity of this pandemic.

The Seattle Flu Study wasn't allowed to communicate back to patients but "By Feb. 25, Dr. Chu and her colleagues could not bear to wait any longer. They began performing coronavirus tests, without government approval. What came back confirmed their worst fear. They quickly had a positive test from a local teenager with no recent travel history." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/us/coronavirus-testing-de...

I'm glad to hear they're allowed to do the SCAN study!

> The FDA has recently made clear that no at-home self-collection tests are allowed

I think rightfully so. I was on a government video conference where a doctor showed the current CDC testing procedure, which involves stick a swab in the nose all the way to the back of the throat. They explained that the further the sample is taken from the lungs the less accurate it is.

For clarity, a 500-patient study in WA (not yet peer-reviewed) showing self-swabbing to be as effective as swabbing by health care workers has prompted FDA to allow patient to self-swab at clinics, just not at home: https://medcitynews.com/2020/03/fda-says-patients-can-self-a...

Totally false - self swabbing is likely to be pretty accurate - and given current approach of virtually no testing - a much better situation

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